Pieces of the Past: Kaira Bloodfire
by Streamstrider
Summary: This is a growing collection of scenes/snippets from the past of Kaira Bloodfire, Vigil Warmaster, Blood Legionnaire, and Crusader of the Order: Chains of Duty.
1. Prepping Floor

The clanging of swords rang in the air, thick with dust and the smell of sweat. The monotonous noise drowned out the voices yelling in adjoining rooms, droning loudly in the soldiers' ears. It was all the same. Always the same. The same instructions. The same steps. Same beats. Move here. This way. Hold your sword up. Don't stop moving. Win your battle.

_I had to win._

Halt. Stop. Stand back up. Stand your ground.

_I had to stand back up._

A large white charr clad in heavy iron armor moved slowly across the small quarters, bringing his large, serrated blade to a ready position. His curved, forward-facing horns barely missed the ceiling. Climbing up from the ground before him was a slightly smaller charr, her glistening white fur knotted with bits of blood and dirt. Her armor was only a patchwork of thick leather and iron plates, and it had certainly seen better days.

Their golden eyes met, and she wiped some blood from her maw, a low growl rising in her throat.

"You just won't give up, will you?" said the male, his voice gruff but hardly stressed.

_You knew I couldn't._

He chuckled when his opponent took her stance and readied her blade. "You should really stay down."

_Like hell I would._

The female bared her thick fangs, brow furrowed in anger. "I'll gut you like a pig."

She took a swing, and he took a step back, a wide grin on his face. "Now, that would be counter-productive, wouldn't it?"

_Guess that depends._

_. . . On what?_

_You had to go._

He raised his weapon to block hers as it came down toward him, and his eyes suddenly widened, as the grip on his weapon was broken and a loud _snap_ echoed in the air. His sword clattered to the ground, and before he could react, her fist came around to catch him in the jaw, followed by a hilt to gut, a knee to nose as he buckled.

_It felt good_.

Stumbling back from his opponent, eyes closed, he waved a slightly misshapen paw back behind him to try and catch himself. With nothing to lean against, he fell back on the ground, yelping as pain shot up his arm from his paw.

_I wish I could say I'm sorry._

"What in the flaming hell was that, Kaira?!" he said through gritted teeth.

There she stood, midway across the room, with a smug smirk on her bloodied face. Her body quivered tiredly, and she looked as though she might just drop there, just slump over, but she stood. She stood tall, determined. Her eyes bore into him with a furious intensity.

"Preparation for the gutting," she muttered between breaths, as she bent down and hefted his sword in her other paw. She glanced between the two weapons she carried, and slowly she strode toward him.

_But you were gone before the end._


	2. An Introduction

_You and she always woke up earlier than the rest of us._

Standing on the high point of the ridge overlooking the vast valley, the charr's body was hardly visible against the dark horizon. Her tail swayed ever so slightly just above the ground in short little arcs, causing a barely audible rustling sound as the grass beneath it swayed with its passing.

"What's wrong, Shanira?"

The charr didn't move. Her focus seemed to be somewhere out there in the valley, in a place she couldn't see. "I don't like it."

The noise made by the approaching charr caused Shanira's ears to twitch, and her tail flicked more wildly from side to side. His chest pressed against her back gently, and he almost laughed when he heard her breath catch. She didn't move, though, so still here in the dark, enjoying the warmth of his body, and the heat of his breath on her neck as he lowered his head to rest atop her shoulder. "What don't you like?"

Silence was his response, but he only smiled as he looked off in the distance, imagining what she would look like when the sun rose. Her brilliant golden fur would complement his white so well; her auburn mane would blow about in disarray with the morning breeze. Her eyes. How he loved her eyes. Those deep brown pools had so much fight and energy, a ferocity he always admired.

"You should be asleep, Krasht."

A low rumble of a chuckle escaped the male. "I don't sleep well without you next to me."

Shanira huffed.

"GAAAAHHH!"

_You both had to know._

Both leapt into action, bounding toward the camp, their momentarily bliss left to the darkness. They came to the edge of the camp, swords drawn, ready for battle, but all they found was a large disgruntled charr shaking his fist angrily at the female across the fire. "Hellfire's blazes, Aukriel!"

Aukriel, her darkly speckled, gray fur glimmering with the fire's light, shrugged her shoulders and made a visible effort to stifle her giggles.

"Thawra, what happened?" Krasht asked, sheathing his sword. Shanira was much slower in doing so, as if considering something dark.

Thawra growled loudly at the giggling female, who had been joined in laughter by another whose presence only seemed to infuriate him more. Her light brown fur would have shone its redder shades if she was any closer to the fire, but instead she stayed a few steps behind Aukriel, safely away from him. "She caught my blazing fur on fire! Again! Femi, stop laughing! One is enough!" He stood away from the fire, almost enough to blend with the shadows, his pitch black fur offering no measure of contrast with which to compare. It sounded like he was still trying to brush something off of himself.

_It wasn't unusual. Remember the first time they met?_

_Yeah. She set his mane on fire. It's been patchy ever since._

"You should really stop antagonizing him." Shanira and Krasht looked up into the nearby tree, where a tiger-striped tail swayed back and forth beneath a branch, catching glints of light from the fire. Below on the ground a large black bear lied quietly, brown eyes wide open, taking in the whole of the group, analyzing, criticizing. Everyone was always a little skeptical as to just how smart that animal was.

"Masika," Shanira stated matter-of-factly, not looking twice at the bear. She took a cursory glance around the camp, and she wrinkled her nose. "Where are the others?"

Masika's deep, less-than-feminine voice, spoke evenly, "Djedka and Severin are on the ridge a little ways east."

Krasht spoke again, "Kaira?"

Recovering from her giggles, Femi volunteered, her voice soft, almost hard to hear, "She said she was practicing."

"I don't think she's slept more than a wink tonight," Aukriel chimed in, her eyes looking fondly toward Thawra who was slowly slinking back into the light. His left arm was still a little smokey, but the anger on his face had disappeared, his eyes looking back at Aukriel's mischievously.

Krasht and Shanira exchanged glances, and nodding to each other, they both started in opposing directions.

"Get ready," she said. "We will be moving by daybreak."

_You didn't have to ask. You knew, like you always did._

He found her easily, kneeling beside a clear pool not far from where they'd made camp, a soft light emanating from her pale body. Her eyes were closed. She looked almost serene, peaceful. One might think she was totally oblivious to her surroundings, so in tune to whatever she was doing, but her snarl at his approach said otherwise. Her eyes didn't open, though. Her breathing remained even. The light never faltered, casting a vibrant glow across the surface of the water.

Slowly he came forward, and as he did, he noticed an unfamiliar thing about her. The intense purity, the raw power that was steadily flowing within her. In all their years he had never seen her draw so much, and for seemingly no purpose. Her weapons were all laid out a few steps away from her. A greatsword, large and bulky, looking nearly blunt, but it was no less deadly than any other when she held it. Then a bow, and a recent acquisition: a staff. There was also . . . No, there was something missing.

As he stepped up beside her, he noticed her knee shaking just slightly, and the ground on which it rested was soaked dark with blood.

"Where's your dagger?"

_You were surprised. So was I_.

As she opened her mouth to speak, he saw the red about her gums, but no words came out.


	3. Living Glow

A glowing orb hovered just above her paw, shining a brilliant white, blue intermittently showing its glorious hues. The air crackled around it. White flame flickered slowly northward, licked the edges of her paw, and like ethereal water trickled over, brushing the paw of her companion which supported her own. The world was dark around them. No fire. No moon or stars. The whole world did not exist, save for this one light, the only thing that held her attention.

_It truly was my whole world. Right there. Right then. It was the only thing that mattered._

In this singular light, her astonishment was clear; her golden eyes were alight with its treasures. He watched her with a proud grin.

_It was . . . amazing_.

What he shared with her would change her life forever. She never knew it was possible, not for her, not this beautiful peace she was feeling. Life coursed through her veins like never before, liquefying them with its intensity, cleansing her bones in a scorching fire that made her want to scream. But . . . it was peace. Tranquility. Harmony. It wasn't just herself. It was the air she breathed. The earth she stood upon. She felt it all so differently.

_I didn't want to let go. I wanted to believe in you. But you tore all of that away from me._


	4. Essence of the Sun

"You've been staring into the fire for quite a while."

Kaira blinked and looked up across the flames. No one was there. She glanced around her. Nothing. Her eyes returned to the fire. "It reminds me of something."

"Of what, might I ask?"

She took a deep breath, savoring the smell of the burning wood, and for a moment, she closed her eyes. In that moment she watched all the memories flash before her, all those things which she held dear, just slip through her claws. Her jaw clenched. "I do not know your voice."

"Of course you do." It was an echo now, rattling inside her head.

Eyes now open, their golden depths shimmered with the flickering light of the fire, brightened by the thin teary glaze brought on by threatening tears. "Fire. Its beauty and allure. The essence of the sun and all that it is to us." A tear descended over her lowered muzzle.

_How dare you even bring up such a thing. . . ._

"It belongs to you."

"It does not!" she roared, standing in her fury. "You betrayed all that it meant!" Her body quaked with anger, and her voice shook. "You . . . You destroyed everything. . . . Get out . . . Get out of my head!"

"Do not deny me! I am a part of you! I will _always_ be a part of you!"

_But you would never have power over me again._

The fire scattered, and a cry rose in the air, a roar of anguish and desperation. She fell to her hands and knees and pressed her head to the ground as the tears streamed from her eyes. Silently she sobbed, thinking only of that flowing ribbon of light. The golden glow that swayed, once so freely, now hidden away in shadow. She could not bear to look upon it again, and yet, beyond all hope she wished to see it, to be worthy of it.

_I could see it so clearly in my mind. Even now, though the sight of its color brings me joy, it also gives me pain._


	5. I See Fire

Best read while listening to Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream".

* * *

_I saw them lying there. I couldn't see their faces—they were . . . unrecognizable—but I knew who they were._

Kaira stared blankly into the pyre, the flames licking up around the bodies hungrily. Fresh tears clung to the fur of her face, and she blinked once, twice, to try and rid herself of the sting in her eyes.

_They were holding on to each other. He was trying to protect her._

A sling was wrapped about her shoulder and chest, and rough trousers fit loosely over her thighs. The charr's back was bare to the world, and the wind sent ripples through the glistening white strands as it danced across the scorched glade. Her tail hung still above the crisp grass, their blackened blades reaching up as if to prick it.

"_I love you." I remember him telling her that. He held her so close. He holds her closer now._

She hadn't thought she had anymore tears to shed, but she felt them slowly begin to trickle down her face.

_They trusted you. The look in her face when she realized it was you. . . . I'd never seen her so afraid._

Looking down at bloody paws, she groaned and they began to shake. Her jaw clenched, and she shut her eyes tightly.

_I saw the fire. Felt it welling inside of me._

Her knees thudded onto the ground, and she lowered herself before the great fire, face pressing against the ashes at its edge. Her paws rested on the back of her neck, and there on the ground she sobbed.

_I can still hear their voices._

With each breath she relived the agony of those moments. It felt like a spear piercing her heart, her stomach, her lungs. Her breathing quickened, and she found it hard to breathe all of a sudden, as if her body was trying to will itself to stop. The ashes scattered as she struggled.

_I should be burning with them._

She groaned loudly, her fingers grasping her mane desperately. They were numb. Even the roaring of the fire fell on deaf ears, lost in time, lost in the voices. Crying. Screaming. It took her a few moments, what seemed like ages, to realize that her voice was carrying, her screams filling the air, full of anger and suffering.

_Why?_

They would be here soon. They would ask questions.

_One day, you and I will burn together in eternity, and you will cause no more misery._

She looked up, and she saw the fire.


End file.
